Just because Cher ignores the tabloids doesn’t mean she’s got no opinion on the matter—particularly when it comes to coverage of her daughter, Chastity Bono, who’s now living as a man.

Quite the contrary, as she told host Craig Seymour in no uncertain terms eight years ago.

Cher: Bemoaned Chastity being "bitterly attacked for no reason."

“I was working as pop-music critic at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and she was promoting the post-Believe album, called Living Proof,” Craig says of his 2002 phone convo with the Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning pop icon.

“I’ve always loved Cher. I don’t remember a time without her. I grew up watching The Sonny & Cher Show. And then when Cher had her own show, the set was this gigantic ‘C,’ and the ‘h-e-r’ was written inside the ‘C,'” adds Craig, now an associate professor of communications at Northern Illinois University, and author of the 2008 memoir, All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.

“So when I was in elementary school, I used to write my name, Craig, like that.”

Not long into his lost interview with the I’ve Got You Babe singer—which was never meant to be broadcast—she launched into an issue that sparked passionate feelings.

“As much as we claim that [America] is an open society, it’s not very open. It’s not very safe to show your feelings to most people. I don’t think people are as kind as they used to be,” she said.

“Definitely the media isn’t very kind at all. I mean, everybody now is a ‘tabloid.’ All the shows, all the news media—it’s very tabloid.

A dapper Chaz last month on ABC's "Good Morning America."

That’s when Craig brought up Chastity, who last year had a gender-change operation—and nine days ago petitioned a Los Angeles court to change her name to Chaz Salvatore.

“How do you feel about how the tabloids treated your daughter, who really isn’t a public figure, but they cover her very closely?” Craig asked.